Absurdity
by Memory Theta
Summary: Raf discovers one of his best friends from school is a genius who explores the multiverse. They embark on adventures that the Autobots may not approve of (if only they knew) and find the hidden gems of reality itself. [AU]
1. Prologue

**_Hello and welcome to Absurdity. Unlike previous works on this account, this will be in a continuity running parallel to my previous stories. However, by this fanfiction's very nature, this really has no meaning whatsoever (you'll understand why as you read). In fact, this fic is different than anything I have written before. One more thing, this story may contain spoilers for my other fics, so be warned. There is also some crossover work that will happen in this fic, so be advised about that (You can check the AO3 version for more details). With that said, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!_**

 ** _Oh, and if you are wondering about the meaning of the title… well, I will say this without spoiling it: it refers to a deeper philosophical meaning that will be explored in this fic in great depth._**

 **Chapter 1 – Prologue**

 **Jasper, Nevada**

An irritating electronic beep reverberated throughout the halls of Memorial High School in Jasper, Nevada. Sounds of shuffling, footsteps and chatter followed as students left their classes for the last time of the week. "Hey Raf!" A voice called in one of the hallways.

A small boy turned his head in response, "Hi Dan!"

The voice's owner made his way through the mass of teenagers who were crowding the hallway. His dark chocolate looked down onto the younger computer wizard. His glasses frame almost completely matched Raf's, except his were jet black. "You wanna come to my house?" Daniel asked.

"Sure," Raf replied with a smile, "just let me make a quick call."

Raf walked a few meters in the opposite direction and pulled out his phone. Daniel could barely overhear their conversation. "Hey 'Bee? I'll be coming back to base late, I'm going to a friend's… okay, I'll send it to you."

 _I've never heard of any human being named 'Bee'…_ Daniel thought.

He ended the call and caught up with Daniel, who was already walking in the opposite direction. The two boys made their way out of the overpopulated school with haste. After narrowly avoiding a pack of known bullies, they found themselves a block away from Daniel's house.

"Man, Vince has gotten worse these days," Raf commented.

Daniel cocked his head to the side as they rounded the corner onto his street. "I agree, he really is such a self-absorbed prick."

"He's just so rude!" Raf added.

"Yeah, I know… think of it this way, in a few years' time after high school, he'll be begging someone like us to hire him as a cleaner because he can't get a job doing anything else. You don't get anywhere street-racing your life away."

Raf nodded in agreement as they entered Dan's house. It was a relatively large two-story building with modern furnishings and décor. They immediately proceeded up the stairs to Daniel's bedroom. The interior of the room was spartan: a single bed was in the corner of the room with a pearl white "L shape" desk directly opposite. The desk only had a keyboard, mouse and a large monitor on it.

Daniel pulled his laptop out of his backpack and plugged it into all the peripherals on the desk. Raf got his laptop out and sat on the bed, reviewing some code he'd written a while back. "What'd you wanna do today, Dan?"

Daniel sighed, "Oh, I don't know… there's a hackathon (a competitive event in which people collaborate to create things in a short period of time) on in New York. Wanna watch a live stream of it?"

"Sounds great!" Raf beamed.

Daniel flashed a smile and turned to his computer. He loaded the live event and put it on full screen. Raf was mesmerized by the lengths people were going through to stay on top. One team's table was filled with mostly empty coffee mugs. Apparently, they'd been up all-night working on a robot that could do stand-up comedy. _I wish I was that skilled,_ Raf thought bitterly.

Daniel's thoughts, however, were much different. _How cute, I've seen robots that could make this look like a child's science fair project._

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Daniel pulled it out of his pocket to see what it was.

 ** _INCOMING SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION ORIGINATING FROM SECTOR MW-141_**

 _Speak of the devil. Velocitron._ Daniel thought.

Daniel turned his head to see Raf still paying complete attention to the livestream. "Hey Raf, I need to do something… I'll be right back!"

Raf didn't even so much as respond. Daniel smiled and walked out of his room into the hall and rounded a corner and went downstairs. Just at the bottom of the stairs, there was a metal door to the left, which he opened (but neglected to close), revealing the house's garage.

However, this garage was not in any way ordinary. Sterile, black workbenches wrapped around the room with microscopes and other scientific instruments. Vials of various chemicals (including one in particular that glowed a brilliant cyan blue) were held in a glass cabinet above one of the work benches. A computer terminal was beeping and flashing continuously since Dan had entered the room. He walked over to it and pressed a few buttons and verified the signature of the transmission.

 _Definitely Velocitronian,_ Daniel silently confirmed.

Daniel tapped a large, green button on the terminal screen labeled 'accept.' The screen immediately filled with a live video feed of a Velocitronian femme. Her armor was red and white and sported the insignia of Velocitron. Everything about her screamed the Velocitronian ideal: speed.

Daniel gave a genuine smile, "Your excellency, it has been a while."

"Indeed, if you consider six Earth months to be 'a while'" the Velocitronian femme quipped.

Daniel rubbed his head, remembering the massive difference in lifespan between their species. "Right, how is Velocitron? Moving ever faster as always?"

"You know us too well, Daniel, and you don't have to refer to me as 'your excellency" she chuckled, "how's Earth?"

Daniel's posture relaxed, "The same old story, Override. Humanity is still completely ignorant about universe around them, which is still for the best… for now. Curiously, after I installed a new sensor array I detected a few Autobot signals in the town I live in."

Her optics widened, "Autobots? On Earth? Do you know which ones they are?"

Daniel shook his head, "no, I haven't had a chance to investigate their presence here on Earth. Although they seemingly haven't been causing any trouble, which I am grateful for."

Override scratched her chin in contemplation, "I assume given by your tone that there hasn't been any Decepticon activity."

"None to my knowledge," Daniel responded with a sigh of relief, "although, having Autobots roaming the streets doesn't exactly reassure me. We have a saying on Earth, 'where there's smoke there's fire' and the array isn't completely online yet and has an extremely limited range, so I could very well be wrong."

Override nodded in understanding, "anyway, the actual reason for me calling you is to invite you to a ceremonial race celebrating the 300-year anniversary of the Interstellar Union."

"Will you be racing?" Daniel smirked.

"Of course!" Override replied as if she was offended by the question.

Before Daniel could make another snarky comment, he heard someone call in the distance: "Daniel, where are you?"

 _Shit._ Daniel thought as he heard Raf come closer.

The younger boy barged into the garage, "there you are! I didn't…" he trailed off, setting his eyes upon the Red and White femme. "Oh… um."

"Override?" Daniel asked, "I think I'll need two tickets for that race."

"Of course," the femme responded, looking at something behind her, "I have to go. The race starts in a deca-cycle."

The transmission ended, leaving the terminal screen blank. Daniel facepalmed at his stupidity as Raf looked around the room. "How… how do you know a Cybertronian" Raf asked.

Daniel didn't respond for a moment, he still was upset that he didn't see this coming. _How could I have forgotten about Raf!_

"That was Override. She's the leader of Velocitron," Daniel explained flatly while getting up out of his chair, "and this is my laboratory. Where I screw around with science and create stuff."

"Velocitron? Is that another planet?" Raf questioned as he continued to look around.

Daniel took a deep breath, "now, I'm sure you won't believe me when I tell you this… wait? How do you know of other worlds… or Cybertron for that matter?!"

Raf took a deep breath and tried to meet his friend's eyes. His anxiety shone through his face like a flashlight against a thin sheet of paper. Before he could speak however, Daniel took a step back, "Wait a minute, I knew _Bee_ wasn't a human name!" His eyes darted around in thought, remembering all the times he had mentioned it while phoning 'a friend.'

"At first, I thought it was a nickname. Those things can be weird, you know?" Daniel babbled. He walked to the center of the room, facing away from his younger friend. "But now! 'Bee is short for **Bumblebee**? Isn't it?"

Daniel could hear Raf gulp. He turned around to see… fear in his eyes? Raf slowly nodded in response to his question.

"Tell me, if I were to scan for Autobot signals right now, would I detect one right on my doorstep?" the taller boy inquired with irritation lacing his words.

"I don't know."

Daniel brushed passed him and pressed a few buttons on his terminal. A map of Jasper came up and he typed a few extra commands in. After a few seconds, three Autobot insignias appeared, two of which were nowhere nearby, however, one was just across the street. Daniel narrowed his eyes and scowled. "Well… at least he isn't literally on my doorstep,"

"Look, it's not like they're going send your address to the Decepticons!"

Daniel facepalmed and zoomed in on the Autobot insignia. "See this?" Daniel nearly yelled, pointing at the symbol, "In this galaxy, this symbol means one of two things: 'shoot me' or 'do not shoot me.' So, you can see why I am not too thrilled about having a car marked with THAT outside my house which happens to have technology that could be valuable to those who think 'shoot' when looking at that symbol."

"How can you detect Autobot signals?" Raf suddenly asked.

Daniel took a deep breath, "I'm in the process of installing a new sensor array on the Roof that will allow me to monitor subspace signals globally, however, right now I can only monitor Jasper. I managed to call in a few favors at Quintesson Intelligence to acquire both the Autobot and Decepticon transponder codes and frequencies."

"If that were to fall into Decepticon hands…" Raf softly started.

"I know. And that isn't close to everything I have here."

Raf looked away from Daniel. The taller boy couldn't exactly tell what the young computer genius was feeling, but he knew it couldn't be good. _Shit, I think I really scared him… he must really care about this 'Bumblebee.'_

"Hey Raf?" Daniel spoke in a cheerier tone.

"What."

"You should know that I have taken precautions to prevent my tech from getting in the wrong hands. This entire area is rigged to self-destruct if I deem it necessary."

Raf looked at Daniel and sighed, "What happens now? Are you going to escort me out and promise to forget about this entire situation?"

Instead of directly answering his question, Daniel inquired, "how long did you tell Bumblebee you'd be staying here?"

Raf was taken aback by the question, "two hours."

Daniel quickly looked at the time on his phone. His face seemed to light up like a Christmas tree, "then we have time for a quick adventure! Have you ever stepped foot on another planet?"

"No."

"Brilliant! There's a first time for everything!" Daniel exclaimed.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Raf shifted uncomfortably.

"Nonsense Raf," Daniel exhaled as he walked closer to him, "I've been doing this for three years now. Trust me, I'm not going to take you to a warzone or anything like that."

The younger boy was slightly put at ease. Daniel walked passed him and opened a closet that Raf had just noticed. He grabbed a lab coat and put it on, as well as getting a strange looking gun from the same closet.

"I still don't know -"

Before Raf could finish his comment, Daniel fired his 'gun' at the wall, creating a flat, yellowish, oval portal.

"Woah." Raf gasped.

"You haven't seen half of it yet," Daniel smirked.

 _Wait a minute, I forgot something,_ Daniel remembered. He went over to a cupboard and grabbed another device, called a hypospray. Then, he grabbed a vial from a drawer and slid it into the back of the device. "Now, before we go anywhere, I'm going to need you to hold out your arm."

Raf raised a brow, "okay?"

Dan decided to make this process as painless as possible. He quickly darted towards Raf, grabbed his arm and injected the serum into his arm with a hiss.

"What was that?" Raf inquired, seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal.

"That was an immune-system enhancement serum, it will prevent you from dying a horrible death even before even taking your first breath on another organic world," Daniel explained, "the bacteria and other nasty things floating around on other worlds are completely alien to our immune-systems. So, they need to be enhanced for us to survive."

Raf nodded in understanding.

"Oh, and that shot will extend your lifespan for about 20 years or so."

Not even looking at the other boy's astonished facial expression, Daniel tapped a few buttons on a screen on the strange pistol he'd shot at the wall just a few seconds prior. _Where to…_ Daniel pondered, _oh I know!_ He finished pressing buttons on gun and pulled the trigger once more. With a zap, the portal went from being a solid yellow color to being like a window which led to another world.

"Come along Raf!" Daniel cheerfully said as he went through the portal.

Raf followed behind, jumping through the oval shaped portal onto a type of soil he had never felt before. It was squishier than the soil on Earth, like walking on a giant sponge. He gasped at the landscape dominated by massive, bright green, snowcapped mountains. One of the planet's suns had just dipped below the tallest mountains, while the other smaller one just barely peeked between two mountains. "Wow…" he glowed.

"Turn around," Daniel ordered with a big smile.

Raf did what he was told. His eyes were would have fallen out of their sockets if he had opened them any wider. His jaw dropped to the floor, "Oh my God."

Large, silvery megascrapers taller than the planet's clouds stood before them, backed by even larger mountains. They all glistened in the sunset, turning them a beautiful shade of red. Only after a few seconds did Raf notice the car-like vehicles that were flying around the city's buildings like they were on roads.

"Where are we?" Raf breathed.

"Raf, I'd like to officially introduce you to Quintessa," Daniel grinned, "officially the first extraterrestrial world you have set foot on."

They stood in silence for over a minute, observing the city ahead of them. Raf noticed large, metallic, egg-shaped things floating in traffic with the flying cars he had noticed earlier. "What are those?" he asked while pointing at one of the egg-shapes.

"Those are the Quintessons themselves. They are naturally very frail beings, only naturally suited for very specific environments such as oceans ponds. These metal suits allow them to live in environments they'd normally be unsuited to."

Raf nodded in understanding.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Union City awaits!"

"Union City?" Raf asked as he followed behind Daniel.

"Yes, it was built after the Interstellar Union was founded 299 years ago. It was designed to be a multi-species city. It can accommodate beings the size of humans all the way up to the size of Cybertronians themselves!"

"May I ask a question?" Raf asked after a few minutes of walking, "what's with the lab coat?"

Daniel stopped and turned heel to face Raf, "I don't just go on pleasure trips like this, most of the time I'm exploring, and it's important to have protective clothing when travelling the unknown. Besides, it's my signature in this universe."

"This universe?" Raf questioned.

"Forget about it, I'll tell you about the multiverse later."

About ten minutes later, the two boys found themselves at a road. Unlike the other flying vehicles, the cars on this road had old-fashioned wheels, which didn't, however, slow them down in the slightest. The cars whizzed by like lightning bolts, creating massive winds for pedestrians on the sidewalk. Daniel gestured Raf to follow him along the sidewalk to a bench with a giant pole sticking out of the concrete next to it. "Seriously Dan? A city bus? I take those all the time in Jasper!"

"These aren't like your regular terrestrial city busses."

Daniel pressed a button on his phone. Instantly, a bus came out of the blisteringly fast traffic and stopped in front of the pole. "The number 1701 Downtown bus comes every ten seconds," Daniel said with a sheepish grin. The bus was filled with alien organisms. From beings that looked like giant houseflies to massive brown slugs.

He tapped his phone against a terminal screen at the front of the bus and gestured for Raf to hurry up. "Get to your seat and hold on!"

Raf sat next to Daniel. "Seriously. You need to hold on." Daniel warned as they started to pull into traffic.

Suddenly, Raf felt like he was in a rocket going into space. The G-Force applied to his body by the bus's acceleration made his cheeks press against his skull. Like a floppy dog in a wind tunnel.

After a few seconds, the acceleration stabilized and Raf regained his wits. He gawked at how fast things went by outside the window, like if someone were to film a one-hour car ride and sped it up to take a minute. "Don't get too comfortable," Daniel cautioned, "we're getting off in fifty stops."

Raf rolled his eyes and thought, _fifty stops, how long with take?_

In the corner of his eye, Raf could see Daniel about to press the bus's stop button. _Oh shit._ He immediately grabbed a hold of a nearby pole as the bus rapidly decelerated to a stop. Again, in a daze, Daniel had to pull his younger friend off the bus, "comon, the bus driver won't wait forever."

"Qu'va!" Daniel said apologetically to the driver who waved him off.

Daniel sighed and watched as Raf wobbled around on the sidewalk, careful to keep him away from the road. "D-Daniel?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"Can we not do that again?" Raf moaned.

Daniel chuckled, "Of course. I could have just created a portal to where we wanted to go… it's all about the experience y'know?"

Raf glared at him, "That was _not_ fun"

"Sorry, the next and final thing we'll do here will make it up, I swear."

Raf looked at his friend skeptically, but nodded nonetheless, "lead the way."

Daniel resumed his cheerful attitude as they walked up to one megascraper's lobby. As entered the elevator, however, instead of having a bunch of buttons to select a floor, they had a numberpad and a screen. Daniel entered the number 2000.

 ** _"You have selected floor two-thousand: observation deck. Is this what you want?"_** an automated voice spoke in English.

"Yes," Daniel responded.

Unlike the bus, which was an absolute nightmare in terms of acceleration and G-Forces, the megascraper's elevator gracefully ascended into the sky. Raf could see the floors rapidly increasing at about fifteen floors per second. The ride took just over two minutes, and without problem they exited the elevator.

The observation deck was massive, though relatively uncrowded. Three Cybertronians looked out over the city, chatting with a few Quintessons. Raf followed Daniel into another small elevator that took them to a platform that allowed human sized organisms a good view. There was no one else on this platform and Raf placed his hands on the glass. "Holy crap."

Looking down, it looked like you were flying on a terrestrial passenger jet. The surface seemed so far away and so tiny. Yet, they were still very close to the rooftops of the other megascrapers "How far away are we from home?" Raf asked.

"I'd say around 15,000 Parsecs from Earth," Daniel replied nonchalantly.

 _Holy shit,_ Raf thought as he did the math in his head, _that means that if we could travel at lightspeed, I'd take us 49 thousand years to get home!"_

"That's quite a distance" Raf understated, "what's the range on that thing?"

Daniel stretched his head, "theoretically infinite within 4D Spacetime."

'What about other universes? You mentioned…"

"You're opening a whole new can of worms there, Raf. I suggest you drop it."

"Okay," Raf huffed as he looked over the brilliant, alien landscape. "What about these Quintessons? Are they friendly towards us?"

Daniel cracked a smile, "the Quintessons are a very complex matter, and I suppose that I'd have to give you a crash course on their history in order to answer that question.

"Go on," Raf pressed.

"I guess we should start at the beginning," Daniel muttered. Suddenly a grin appeared on his face when he thought of an old movie scene that could help him explain this, "did you ever hear the tragedy of Quintus Prime?"

Raf immediately recognized the meme he was referencing, but decided to go along with it. "No."

"I thought not. It's not a story the Autobots would tell you. It's a Cybertronian legend. Quintus was one of the thirteen original primes, so powerful and so wise he could use an artifact called the 'Emberstone' to influence the base elements to create life… He had such a knowledge of biology, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

"He could actually save people from death?" Raf grinned.

At this point, Daniel could barely keep a straight face. "Manipulating life is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."

"What happened to him?" Raf giggled, unable to contain himself.

"He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his creations everything he knew, then they killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."

"Is it possible to learn this power?" Raf wheezed.

"Not from Optimus."

Daniel started to howl with laughter, causing everyone on the observation deck to look at them quizzically. "What's so funny?" A Quintesson asked.

"Sorry, just giving my friend here a history lesson laced with a bit of humor," Daniel replied sheepishly.

"Ooo, history! I happen to be a history professor at Union University!" the spheroid beamed passionately, "what are you studying?"

"He was just telling the creation story of your species," Raf replied meekly.

"Quintesson history eh? Excellent choice, in fact, the best choice in my _expert unbiased opinion_."

Daniel snorted, "then perhaps you could tell him about the Imperial era pertaining specifically to Cybertron?"

The Quintesson's demeanor immediately shifted, "those were dark times for everyone. My people were spacefaring long before anyone else and we conquered many worlds: including Cybertron. We manipulated them with the ultimate aim of them becoming subservient to us. We failed and as a result, were driven off-world. The modern Autobot insignia is actually derived from the slave brand we used to sell them on the market. Many believe it was our interference that caused the Autobot-Decepticon war. Which has ravaged every corner of this galaxy. Ironic. That war was the main driving force for the collapse of the Quintesson Empire, but, it also was the catalyst for the formation of the Interstellar Union."

"I keep hearing about this 'interstellar union," Raf spoke, "what is it?"

"The Interstellar Union or ISU was formed 299 years ago because of the sheer damage caused by the Autobot-Decepticon war," the Quintesson explained, "everyone was suffering and dying. During the time between the collapse of the Empire and the modern era, my kind underwent various reforms behind the scenes. The Imperially driven Quintesson race was deceptive and vile, fueled by arrogance and an insatiable lust for power. However, after centuries of contemplation, we changed and reached out to other worlds diplomatically for the first time in our history. The Interstellar Union was the result of this diplomacy. The ISU today is an interstellar state that spans over 350 sectors of the known Milky Way, and is dedicated to peace…"

Daniel spotted someone entering the observation deck. A human. Like him, he had a stark white lab coat. His light blue hair was spiky and wore the same shade of blue under his lab coat to match.

"Nope. Not dealing with a Rick today," Daniel muttered.

Daniel could hear the professor getting into a tangent before interrupting, "I'm so sorry professor, but we really should be going."

"But Daniel…" Raf moaned.

"No time," Daniel whispered in his ear, "we have to go. Now."

Raf nodded and said goodbye to the Quintesson who had spoken with them. Dan quickly opened a portal nearby and they both jumped through into his garage. He quickly closed the portal and exhaled.

"What was that about?" Raf asked as he dusted off his shoulder.

"Somebody I really don't feel like talking about right now," Daniel grumbled as he throwed his lab coat onto one of the tables, "I believe your two hours is almost up."

Raf looked at the time and agreed, "well, I should grab my things."

Daniel escorted Raf out of the garage into his bedroom upstairs, where he grabbed his laptop and backpack. Before Daniel opened the door to go outside he asked, "are you available in ten days from now?"

Raf thought for a moment before responding, "yeah? Why?"

"I was wondering if you would want to watch a race on another alien world that is galactically renowned for their speed."

"Sure, why not?" Raf laughed.

"I'll text you later with the details," Daniel confirmed, "one more thing. You CANNOT tell the Autobots anything you've seen today? Do you understand? Just don't mention it and you'll be fine."

"Of course, I'm sure they'd get all overprotective if they found out…"

"That's the least of my worries, Raf." Daniel sighed as he opened the door, "look, you have a ride to catch."

Raf immediately spotted Bumblebee parked across the street. "See you later Daniel!" He waved. The younger boy ran across the street and the yellow and black car's front passenger door opened.

Dan watched as the car sped off into the distance and thought, _what have I done? Have I just opened Pandora's Box?_


	2. The Raid

**_Hello all! I will first start with responding to the comments. I received one on for the previous chapter._**

 ** _Secret1618: Thanks for the feedback! Yes, our good friend Rick Sanchez (and some other well-known characters) will be making a few… cameos in this fic._**

 ** _Now, this chapter attempts to show Daniel's dark, flawed side. I really don't want him to become a Mary Sue (Garry Stu in this case) and am trying to balance him out._**

 ** _Also, I am looking at adding this story to the KTA challenge on … let me know what you think about this. Oh, and I would really appreciate feedback as it helps me grow as a writer. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoy Chapter 2._**

 **Chapter 2 – The Raid**

Daniel sat at one of his workstations with his lab coat on. In front of him was a compound microscope and a few various instruments. Next to those was a vial-holder containing a single vial of some dark green liquid. He grabbed a sample of the liquid and placed it under the microscope. "Computer, new journal entry."

Through the garage's speaker system, an electronic beep signaled that the microphones were switched on and recording.

"As a part of my Anti-Cybertronian weapons initiative, I have invested heavily in the development of new refinement techniques for the substance 'energon-6,' also known as Tox-En. These new refinement techniques render it non-toxic to organic lifeforms, however, it remains utterly deadly to Cybertronians. I calculate that a kilogram of my refined Tox-En could knock a Cybertronian unconscious after five minutes: thirty minutes to kill, in addition to unfathomable amounts of pain."

"Due to the absolute barbarity of this, I have decided to keep this weapon as a last resort. My current developments in plasma weaponry should be sufficient to fend off a Decepticon attack of my facilities. In addition, I plan to acquire technology behind Z series combat droid from my counterpart in universe Alpha-5, which, should provide me with excellent security for all my facilities moving forward."

"However, if all else fails, I will not hesitate for Earth's security to refine the 1,000 kilograms of Tox-En in my possession and distribute it throughout the atmosphere, painfully terminating any Decepticon or Autobot exposed. Again, this is a weapon of last resort and I will never condone its use except in the face of oblivion itself. End entry 241."

The computer beeped once more, signaling that it had stopped recording. Daniel drank a glass of water and checked his phone.

 ** _Going Autobot base for the day, see you soon! - Raf_**

 _Great. Now what am I going to do all day_ , Daniel thought miserably, _on a weekend nonetheless!_

Suddenly, his phone started to ring.

 ** _INCOMING SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION FROM QUINTESSA PRIME._**

 _Hmm, maybe this'll be something worth my time._

He pressed accept. His screen filled with a live feed of a Quintession, though, this wasn't just any metal spheroid creature.

"M-Mr. President!" Daniel sputtered. It wasn't every day the President of the Interstellar Union called you out of the blue.

"Hello Mr. Flynn," The President responded curtly, "How is Earth? Chancellor Override of Velocitron has told me of an Autobot presence there."

Daniel nodded, "yes, I've detected their transponder signals."

"I am sorry to confirm your suspicions, but, after I was told of an Autobot presence in the Sol System I ordered a recon mission. My intelligence units have confirmed that there are indeed Decepticons on Earth."

Daniel was taken aback, "how many?"

"The Decepticon flagship, the _Nemesis_ was detected in orbit. It is likely Megatron is aboard, as well as the many other key officers."

Daniel scratched his head, "I assume the ISU will not intervene?"

"That is generally our policy with technologically primitive worlds such as Earth. We will do everything in our power to destroy Decepticon forces elsewhere. They are considered by the ISU as a terrorist organization and we will deal with them as such."

Daniel grabbed a glass of water, "is there anything else, Sir?"

"No. We'll keep you posted, President Predium out."

 _I need to know more about the Autobot forces on Earth. So far, I have only detected three unique signals and if they are the only ones, humanity is in trouble_ Daniel thought, _I need to get into their base._

Daniel went over to a closet and put away his lab coat. _This sort of mission will require something a bit more… tactical._

He then went to another closet and opened it, revealing a charcoal suit of armor. The helmet completely enclosed the user's head, with a dark grey tinted visor for sight. The rubbery body suit completely covered every part of the body, allowing for it to be pressurized in space. He grabbed the armor and pulled it out into the center of the garage, where he then pulled off the armor's backplate, revealing a zipper-like mechanism. Which, allowed the user to simply slip into the suit feet first.

"Computer, zip the armor back up."

A large, robotic arm descended from the ceiling behind Daniel, zipping up the back of the suit and reattaching the backplate. He then grabbed the helmet and put it over his head. It automatically connected with the rest of the armor with a hiss. Suddenly, a female robotic voice spoke, **_"Welcome to the FlynnCo Human Protection System Mark III for use in hazardous environments."_**

 ** _"Armor pressurized. Smart camouflage automatic profile engaged. Vital monitoring engaged. Automatic Medical Intervention System engaged…"_**

Daniel rolled his eyes and groaned, "why did I make this thing so verbose?"

He grabbed his portal gun from a drawer and connected it to his armor systems. The helmet's Head's Up Display showed this alongside Daniel's vital statistics. Walked over to the other side of the room towards a safe that was embedded in the wall. He inputted the code and the door opened, revealing a massive arsenal of plasma weapons. He grabbed a pistol and holstered it. _It's only a nine-gauge plasma pistol_ , Daniel thought, _not too effective against Cybertronian armor plating, though a critical hit is still possible if I aim between their plating._

He then grabbed a few small, blue spheroid-shaped devices that were formally known as Cybertronian Immobilizer Grenades, or CIGs for short. They latched onto a Cybertronian's armor and could stun a them for up to thirty minutes, depending on their size.

"Computer, compile the Autobots' recorded movements and estimate the location of their base."

 ** _"Working… location found, showing now on HUD."_**

A map appeared on Dan's HUD with the coordinates, which he then input into his portal gun. _Let's just hope that the portal opens somewhere slightly discreet._

He finally aimed the portal gun at the wall and fired, ripping a human sized hole in fabric of spacetime. The portal was transparent, allowing him to see through to the other side without entering first. The room on the other side was small, dark and had shelves stocked full of random crap. _Storage room. Perfect._

Dan jumped through the portal and closed it behind him, leaving him in complete darkness. His visor's night vision function automatically activated. Crouching down, he opened the storage room's door just a crack to see if anyone was outside. He sighed in relief after he realized that the storage room was only accessible by a corridor that was only human sized. Like the storage room, it was completely pitch black.

Dan clipped his portal gun to his utility belt. It needed to recharge for a few minutes before he could use it again.

He whispered, "computer, initiate positronic scans."

Like magic, after a few seconds, a rough map of the base appeared on Daniel's HUD, along with the location of the main computer core. He grinned, though it wouldn't last as his blood ran cold, _any true Cybertronian facility would have been able to detect that sort of scan… but, this place is a dump. Surely, they don't have access to the technology they used during the War for Cybertron._

Daniel crept down the corridor towards a set of double doors. Unlike the previous door he went through, a thin band of light streamed through the cracks, indicating that there was a chance of encountering an Autobot. He slid beside the doors and cracked one open, only to be greeted with another empty, albeit lit corridor. However, as he moved through the door and stepped into the light, one thing stood out.

The corridor was an order of magnitude bigger than the previous one. Built for Cybertronians.

Instinctively sensing the danger, Daniel subconsciously grabbed his pistol and ran for cover behind a metal support beam. He took a deep breath and put the pistol back, _stay focused_ , he thought.

In the main silo, Ratchet's computer terminal beeped. "Optimus!" Ratchet called, "come take a look at this."

Optimus strode over and asked, "what is it old friend?"

"I've picked up a high frequency spike in positron emissions _inside_ the base."

"What could have possibly caused this?"

"None of our equipment would create a burst like this, however, positrons tend to  
reverberate similarly to photons. Many species have used them to…"

The medic gasped, his optics grew wide and his jaw dropped in horror. "I recognize this energy pattern, from a long… long time ago."

"What is it?" Optimus pressed.

By this time, the rest of the Autobots and their human charges had gathered around, obviously interested in what made Ratchet this nervous.

"Before the Liberation of Cybertron from the Quintessons, their commando units emitted positrons as a way of scanning the interior of their target's base."

 _The Quintessons,_ Raf thought, _I wonder if Daniel has anything to do with this._

The rest of the Autobots were shocked, but, that quickly turned to red hot anger.

Optimus's optics widened, he had tried many times to remove the Quintessons from his thoughts. The horrors they'd inflicted on Cybertron it its people were only outdone by that of the Decepticons by a slim margin. Before anyone else could comment, he commanded, "Ratchet, remain here with the children. Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and I will capture this Quintesson."

"Optimus, the Quintesson commandos that emitted those signals were _deadly_. They could disguise themselves as anything!" Ratchet protested, "for the children's sake, you must destroy that demon when you encounter it!"

Optimus lowered his optics in sorrow. He knew the medic was right. "For the security of humankind, I will heed your advice."

But that did not mean he liked it.

His battlemask engaged and he transformed he drew his energon cannons. "Autobots, fan out!"

Daniel stayed low as he moved through the massive corridor. He could feel the Autobots' footsteps. His HUD showed the map of the Autobot base with his current position marked and he was still somewhat far from the computer core. His objective was simple, download everything from the base's mainframe and get the hell out.

Well, if only it would be that simple.

Feeling the footsteps getting closer, he attempted to run behind a pillar to hide, but it was too late. Arcee had already seen him and immediately opened fire. He managed to dive behind cover before he could be hit. Instincts taking over, he pulled out his plasma pistol and desperately returned fire. She was just out of range of what his throwing distance, eliminating CIGs from the equation.

He ducked behind cover, _she didn't even ask me to surrender… highly irregular behavior from an Autobot._

"This is Arcee, the commando is in corridor J-2 disguised as a human in some kind of armor! Repeat, it is disguised as a human!"

Not even registering what she'd said, Dan pressed a few buttons on the side of his helmet, enabling his HUD's crosshairs. He left cover and fired a barrage of red plasma bolts at the blue femme, careful to avoid shooting a fatal shot. Most of them sizzled harmlessly against her armor's plates, however, three of them managed to get through the cracks and ate away at her mesh. She howled in pain. Daniel then sprinted forward and threw a CIG that landed on the side of her neck, causing her to collapse and go into stasis.

Daniel took a deep breath, but before he could do anything else, Bumblebee rounded the corner ahead of him. He looked at Arcee and his optics narrowed, "what did you do squid!"

Before Daniel could react, Bumblebee fired an energon bolt, which directly hit his chestplate, sending the human flying.

Daniel's HPS armor had an insulation layer that protected him against the energon itself, though, his chestplate was nearly completely atomized, having served its purpose. His helmet's visor was cracked, although still functional. Before he could even get to his feet, he felt a large, metal hand wrap around his body. He opened his eyes and found he was eye-level with the Autobot who had just shot him. He turned his head, noticing that 'Bee had his blaster at point-blank range with his head.

"What are you doing on Earth, squid?" Bumblebee beeped lowly, tightening his grip.

 _Squid?_ Daniel thought, _I'm not a Quintesson!_

His mind raced between every possible outcome of this situation, but almost all of them ended in his death. He remembered that he'd copied old Quintesson war tech to create the positronic scanner, and that was probably why the Autobots were being so ruthless with him.

He could try and surrender, but not only could that not work (considering the Quintesson's past with the Autobots,) but it would also mean removing his helmet and revealing his identity, which would open an entirely new can of worms. He tried to reach for his second CIG, to no avail. 'Bee's grip tightened even more, "I don't have all day, Quintesson slime!"

Daniel resisted the urge to scream in pain. His visor filled with red text, warning him of injuries, but, at the same time, it announced them externally, **_"WARNING: Multiple bone fractures detected."_**

 _Well crap,_ Daniel lamented, _there goes my chance of getting out of this without the Autobots knowing about me…_

Bumblebee's expression changed from that of pure fury to shock. "You're actually human?" 'Bee quietly buzzed.

Daniel weakly nodded.

The scout's optics instantly filled with regret and he immediately loosened his grip on the boy and set him on the ground. "I'm so sorry! I need to get Ratchet-"

"You'll find that Arcee's injuries are superficial and with basic medical treatment, will make a full recovery," Daniel said, applying a voice changer to conceal his true voice.

"Who are you?" 'Bee asked.

Daniel ignored him and looked at his portal gun. It had already recharged and was ready to fire. He set the coordinates for the base's computer room and fired at the ground, causing him to fall through. As soon as he was on the other side, he closed the portal to prevent 'Bee from figuring out where he was.

Lying on the ground, Daniel struggled to get to his feet. But, after wobbling for a few moments, he set eyes on the mainframe itself. He hobbled over to a computer terminal nearby and effortlessly bypassed the mainframe's security measures and began copying data to a USB drive. He watched as the little green bar moved across the screen.

Suddenly, the bar stopped and a bunch of error messages filled the screen that all said one thing. **_ACCESS DENIED._**

 _What the hell?_

Daniel opened a terminal window and traced the source of the problem. _I already have root access, how is this possible!_ He thought as he furiously typed away, _trying to gain access._

The system appeared to be resisting his exploits, like someone else was filling them on the other end…

It suddenly dawned on him. He checked for other users logged into the mainframe remotely.

 **USERS LOGGED IN:**

 **Root**

 **Root**

 **Ratchet**

 _This is Raf's work._

Daniel had mentored the younger boy in the art of hacking earlier. He was already competent before Dan met him, but after he taught him a few extra skills, Raf became unstoppable in the realm of hacking.

Well. Unstoppable against most other haxx0rs.

 _Trying to bypass the defenses Raf has erected would waste valuable time_ , Dan reasoned, _perhaps something else..._

Daniel hacked into the main screens in the silo.

Raf furiously typed commands into his laptop. Text scrolled through multiple terminal windows as he kept the intruder out of the mainframe.

"Any progress?" Ratchet asked.

"I've blocked the file transfer… funny…" Raf trailed off, looking at some code.

"What is it?" the old Autobot medic asked.

"This thing's hacking style is… familiar. It's disturbingly like my own…"

Miko and Jack, who were standing behind him, watched as he went over some code.

"You got this Raf!" Miko cheerfully said, "this Quintesson has got nothing on you!"

"By the allspark!" Ratchet gasped.

Raf looked up to Ratchet, who was looking at the main computer screens.

 ** _DID YOU EVER HEAR THE TRAGEDY OF DARTH PLAGUEIS THE WISE?_**

It suddenly clicked in Raf's mind, "Son of a bitch!"

"What happened?" Jack asked.

Raf stayed silent for a second. He remembered what Daniel had told him yesterday about not telling the Autobots. _If I tell the 'Bots about him and the fact I was on another, they'll go ballistic…_

"N-Nothing," Raf lied. The young boy discreetly disabled all the extra firewalls he'd set up to prevent the data download. _I better get an explanation for this_ , he thought.

Miko raised an eyebrow, _he's hiding something._

On Ratchet's computer screen, he could tell that the download had been restarted. "Raf, they've broken through!"

Raf pretended to block the 'Quintesson', "I can't stop it!"

Ratchet's optics widened. The download was successful. All the Autobot's intel were in the hands of whoever just invaded their base. "FRAG!" Ratchet yelled, grabbing a wrench and throwing it at one of the screens overhead.

"Scrap, I needed that…" Ratchet moaned.

Raf felt a twinge of guilt brewing in his stomach. Before he could think about it, his guardian ran into the silo with Arcee in his arms. Drips of energon fell onto the floor, but not much. Without Ratchet even ordering it, 'Bee carried her to sickbay and placed her on a berth.

Ratchet ran over and grabbed a few tools. With haste, he scanned the patience and read the results on his HUD. He vented a sigh of relief, "she'll be okay, the wounds are purely superficial."

"Then why is she in unconscious?" Jack inquired with anxiety lacing his tone.

"I have no idea."

"The human said that the wounds weren't serious…" 'Bee beeped quietly.

Ratchet paused what he was doing and looked at him, "human? What do you mean human?"

"There was never a Quintesson in the base, it was a human," Bumblebee explained with sorrow in his beeps. "I nearly killed him."

"How are you sure it was a human," Ratchet seethed, "and in case you failed to notice, ALL OF OUR INTEL HAS BEEN STOLEN!"

Bumblebee's doorwings dropped. He looked at his pedes like a puppy in trouble, "I just couldn't bear the thought of killing a human."

"How did he even escape!" Ratchet questioned, "and if it was a human, HOW could he have PLASMA WEAPONRY!"

'Bee looked at Arcee's wounds, fearing he had made a terrible mistake. "I just…"

"This line of questioning is not productive, old friend," Optimus interjected from the other side of the silo, stoically walking towards the rest of the team. "Bumblebee, return to your room. We will discuss the events of today later."

Bumblebee nodded and sauntered off, making Raf feel even more guilty.

"Bulkhead and I will return the children home," Optimus declared as the green wrecker entered the silo.

Both 'Bots transformed and drove up to the stairs that connected the catwalks and platforms to the ground. The children made their way down and Raf and Miko entered Bulkhead, while Jack rode with Optimus.

Tearing his helmet off, Daniel yelped in pain as he sat down in his chair. He'd made it back to his garage. "What an absolute shit show!" Daniel cursed, examining his cracked visor.

He got out of his armor (while enduring a great amount of pain) and shoved it into the corner of the room. He didn't want to see it after what had just happened. He got to his feet and limped to a drawer, where he grabbed a boxy-looking instrument. The pressed a few buttons on it and waved it over his body.

 ** _Minor fractures detected in left humerus, fibula and sternum._** it read.

 _It could have been worse,_ Daniel thought, sitting back down in his chair.

Daniel was left to his thoughts. Hours could have past and he wouldn't have noticed. He replayed every moment of the failed mission, figuring out how he could have done it differently.

"Daniel… you… bastard!" a voice screeched, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR! WHY WERE YOU DOWNLOADING THOSE FILES!"

Little did Raf know that Miko had followed him to Dan's house and overheard his outburst.


	3. The Arcade

**Chapter 3 – The Arcade**

Dan just sat there with his face buried in his hands. He couldn't look at his friend like this, he never intended for this to happen. The mission technically was a success, though, Daniel could only taste the bitterness of defeat. A Pyrrhic Victory, as it is known. "Raf… I hadn't anticipated…"

"Hadn't anticipated what?" Raf challenged, "that the 'Bots would detect your scans? They'd augmented the base's internal security with their tech when they first moved in!"

Daniel looked up at him with eyes filled with dread and regret. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it a few seconds later to contemplate something.

"'Bee let you go, Dan. Do you know how much trouble he's in for that?" Raf questioned. "They think you tricked him into thinking you're a human!"

Suddenly, Daniel's eyes filled with a fiery rage, "do you think I got out of this unscathed?" Daniel roared, "your _guardian_ shot me and nearly squeezed me to death! Three major bones in my body have fractures in them and I can barely walk!"

"If it wasn't for my armor," Daniel started, pointing at the broken suit in the corner of the garage, "I'd be DEAD right now… imagine the trouble he'd be in if he'd actually succeeded in killing me. It would have become apparent that I wasn't a quintesson, considering my guts would spilled all over the floor!"

Raf found a chair to sit on and contemplated how this disaster could have played out worse. He had to admit that if Daniel had been killed, his guardian would be an order-of-magnitude more trouble.

"Why didn't you surrender?" Raf inquired, "it would have cleared 'Bee…"

Daniel looked at him with shock in his eyes. "Let me show you something."

He got up out of his chair and limped to a corner of the room, where a hidden lever was located. He pulled it. In the center of the room, a part of the floor slid away, revealing a ladder to a secret underground area. Dan walked over to the hole in the ground and climbed down the ladder, groaning due to his injuries. "Come along, Raf."

Raf followed. The room was dark and had a somewhat eerie feeling about it. Daniel pressed a button on his phone, turning on the room's lighting. The ceiling, walls and floor were made of a greyish metal alloy. More lab equipment and workbenches wrapped around some of the perimeter of the room, with a rack of weaponry opposite. However, what dominated the underground room most of all were three, giant tanks filled with a murky green substance.

"What are those?" Raf asked, pointing to the tanks.

"I'm glad you asked," Daniel almost seethed. "That is one megagram, or 1,000 kilograms, if you prefer, of a substance formally known as energon-6. Tox-En for short. It is one of the most poisonous substance known to Cybertronians."

Before Raf could respond to this, a voice behind him gasped, "COOL!"

Daniel and Raf whipped around to see Miko looking through the sights of a plasma rifle. "Miko!" Raf admonished, "how did you get here!"

"Please, you are a terrible liar. I knew something was up at base, so I just followed you after Bulk dropped me off," Miko explained as she pretended to shoot aliens with the weapon. Of course, all of Dan's weapons had safeties in place to prevent unauthorized persons from using them, so he really wasn't concerned about that.

"Un-fucking-BELIEVABLE" Daniel moaned.

Daniel knew Miko (and Jack) from school. He knew that she hanged out with Raf, although up until this point he had no idea how. "So, your tied up with the Autobots as well then," Daniel noted.

"Mm-hmm," Miko confirmed, "I always thought there was more to you then you were letting on at school."

Daniel raised a brow, "what gave it away?"

"I actually have no idea," she responded. "But seriously, this place is FREAKING AWESOME!"

Daniel facepalmed before groaning, "damn it, she's going to have to come with us."

"Go where?" Miko and Raf asked.

Daniel flashed a grin, "after that screw up of a mission, I started to think of ways to make it up to you, Raf. I thought we should go to another planet, Aquatron."

"Wait," Miko said with starry eyes, "you guys have been to other worlds! How many have you been to? Have you been to Cybertron…"

"Raf has been to only one other planet so far, Miko," Dan explained, "I on the other hand, have been to countless across many universes… including Cybertron."

"COOL! Can we go there?" Miko asked with excitement.

Daniel raised a brow at her request, "why would you want to go there? It's pretty much devoid of life, except for a few forms of vermin. It's known only as a graveyard now. A graveyard for lost hopes and dreams; the center of a wound the galaxy has yet to heal."

Miko bowed her head ever so slightly, "oh… what about that other place you were talking about earlier? Acatron?"

"Aquatron." Daniel corrected, returning to his normal bubbly, happy one tone. "And it has the largest and best arcade / amusement park in all of the galaxy!"

Raf and Miko's eyes lit up. Miko nearly exploded, "well what are we waiting for, let's go!"

Dan grinned and gestured to them to follow him out of the underground room. Once they were back in the garage, Dan grabbed the same device he'd used on Raf to administer the Immune Enhancement Shot. Miko somehow recognized what it was meant for and squealed, "shots! Why do I need a shot!"

"Aww, is Miko afraid of a needle?" Raf lightly teased.

"Enough," Daniel sternly warned, "now, unless you want die of the cosmic equivalent of Ebola, I'd suggest you hold out your arm."

Miko rolled her eyes, but did as he asked. Daniel used the device to inject it into her arm. After a second, he put the device and cheerfully said, "now let's get a move on!"

"Cool! Do you have a spaceship or something?" Miko inquired.

"I have something better," Daniel grinned as he put his lab coat on. He grabbed his portal gun and inputted the coordinates for Aquatron's Shopping Megamall. He then aimed the gun at the wall and fired, once again tearing a human sized hole in the fabric of spacetime itself.

As they entered the portal, Daniel said, "Oh, and Miko, please don't embarrass us when get to the other side."

Miko simply waved him off. They exited the portal into a large, marble atrium. Various shops lined the perimeter and cybertronians of all shapes and sizes wandered between them. Daniel closed the portal behind them and exclaimed with wide arms, "welcome to the largest mall in all of the Galaxy!"

Dan turned to see Miko, who was seemingly overloaded with excitement. "This. Is. Awesome!" Miko beamed.

"But we haven't even done anything yet," Daniel teased. "Come along and stay close to me… you don't want to get squished on your way to get a mech suit."

"Mech suit?" Miko squealed as she followed Dan, "is that what I think it is?"

They walked into a shop, which looked like an electronics store. Dan walked to the front desk, which towered over their tiny human forms "Hi, I'd like to rent three mech suits."

The clerk, a quintesson looked down at him, "very good sir, what size would you prefer?"

"Medium."

"Great. How long do you plan to rent these suits for?" The clerk asked.

"A day."

"Will you return them to this location or to another one of our 10,000 galaxy-wide rental centers?"

"We're just exploring the mall for today, so here."

"Splendid," the quintesson used one of its wiry, "also, sir, have you heard about our Premium Plus full-service insurance package?"

 _No, and I really couldn't care less,_ Dan thought.

"No. I am not interested."

"Okay, as for the suit itself, we have three silver Headmaster Roamers with the LX trim. They are all equipped with _synthetic_ T-Cogs and are preprogrammed with a ground based alternate mode. Is this acceptable to you, sir?"

Raf noticed the emphasis on the word synthetic. He'd have to ask Dan about that later, because he had an even more important question. "What's a Headmaster?"

Daniel slightly turned towards the younger boy, "It's brand name. Mech suits are treated pretty much the same here as ground vehicles on Earth. I'd say _Headmaster_ is about equivalent to _Urbana_ in terms of prestige."

Dan wrapped the legal details up with the clerk, before the clerk finally said, "that will be fifty credits."

Daniel grumbled something inaudible before asking, "do you take AUTH cards?"

"Yes, we do!" the inverted, metal egg cheerfully replied, pulling out a massive payment terminal. Daniel got out his wallet and pulled a standard sized bankcard out and held it up in the air.

The clerk grabbed the card out of his hands, suddenly, the card grew 15 times in size and was inserted into the bottom of the device. He set the device on the ground and Daniel hopped on it, entering his PIN code with his feet. "This world was never designed for humans."

He climbed off and the clerk finished the transaction. The card transformed back into human size and the clerk handed it back to him.

"It'll be just a moment."

The quintesson floated away through a back door.

"Daniel?" Raf asked, "What's a T-Cog? And why did the quintesson put so much emphasis on synthetic?"

Dan raised a brow, confused by what he meant. It clicked after a few seconds of contemplation, "A T-Cog allows a cybertronian to transform. Mech suits were first invented during the imperial era and used _organic_ T-Cogs harvested from Cybertronian husks."

While Raf processed what he just heard, the clerk reentered the shop with three silver humanoid robots following him. They all then lay down face first on the ground. Miko squealed, running towards one of the suits. Dan climbed up on one of them, but, he noticed in the corner of his eye that Raf was still staring in awe at the mechanical suit, "come on Raf, we don't have all day!"

Raf snapped out of his trance and ran towards the last suit. On this model of mech suit, the driver seat's access hatch was on the back of the head. Dan told the children this and did as he said. As Miko entered her suit, she saw felt gravity… change. Her perspective changed by ninety degrees, "woah," she breathed as she sat down in the driver's seat.

"When you are in the driver's seat, pull the helmet above you down onto your head. You'll feel weird for a moment, but, you'll understand after a few seconds," Daniel called.

When Miko put the helmet on, she felt as if reality itself was slipping away, similarly to the feeling of falling asleep. She closed her eyes, but, when she opened them back up, she found herself lying on the ground. Confused, she got up to her full height and looked around. "Daniel, I don't understand, nothing has happen-" she trailed off as she looked down at her body.

Gone was her fleshy, human body, replaced by silver metal plates. She looked at her servos and touched her arm. She could feel it as if she was touching her natural body. "How do you feel?" A voice smugly asked behind her.

Her body turned around with natural reflexes. She saw Daniel… well, his mech suit anyway was identical to hers. "Weird, what's actually going on?"

"That helmet places you in an altered state of consciousness and interfaces with your brain directly, like a dream… so that you can control the suit."

"It feels so real…" Raf gasped, rising to his full height.

Daniel chuckled. "Think of it this way, if we naturally receive information from our organic sense organs such as our eyes, ears, nose etc… all the suit is doing is replacing those. So, in essence, this _is just as_ real."

Both other children nodded. "Wait, didn't that guy say these suits can transform?"

"Yep. Just think it," Dan replied.

Miko did just that, and before she knew it, her perspective seamlessly changed back to her human form, except, instead of being inside a humanoid robot, she was now driving some alien vehicle. "Cool!" Miko approved, as she transformed back into robot form. What she did next, Daniel did not see coming.

The girl raced up to Dan in her mech suit and squeezed him into a hug, "you've literally made my wildest dream come true!"

"Happy to help," Dan chuckled, "now, who wants to play alien videogames!"

Things weren't going so well for 'Bee back at base. He'd been questioned by his fellow teammates all day and all he wanted to do was recharge. But he simply couldn't. He lay on his berth, replaying events in his processor, thinking about how things could have been different. Suddenly, he received a subspace message from an unknown source. It was a string of text.

 ** _Hello Bumblebee. I'd like to thank you for sparing me, and before you ask, no, I am not a quintesson, nor do I work for them specifically. I cannot tell you who exactly I am or what exactly my intentions are (I am not sure myself, honestly,) but be assured I will NOT share this information with your enemies. You are protecting my homeworld, why would I jeopardize that? I will make this all up to you someday, somehow… but until then, I am in your debt. -DF_**

Bumblebee forwarded the message to the rest of Team Prime and got up off his berth. He left his room and made his way to the silo.

"What could DF mean?" Arcee asked with confusion.

'Bee shrugged, looking at the screen that Ratchet wrenched. Someone had already come by to clean up the shards of glass, and Fowler wasn't too pleased to hear that someone had stolen all the Autobot's files, but he nevertheless allowed Optimus to deal with it his own way without government interference.

Ratchet emerged from one of the corridors connecting to the main silo. He was still in a foul mood, although not entirely directed at the scout. Things just didn't seem to add up, _since when would a quintesson ever aim to disable and not kill an Autobot? They are ruthless creatures, so why would they .do that? On the other hand, if 'Bee was correct about it being human, how could it have the technology of a quintesson?_

Ratchet was getting a helmache just thinking about it, so, he decided to drop it for the moment.

"I think DF is this person's initials," Bulkhead hypothesized, emerging from another part of the base.

"If this really is a human and not some Quintesson trick, they have serious tech backing them up," Arcee sighed, "which is unlikely, considering human technology is laughable at best."

"Except for MECH."

Ratchet went back to the computer and reviewed the computer logs, _there must be something that can point us in the right direction._

As Ratchet continued to review the computer logs, he found something peculiar. A few minutes after Raf locked the intruder out of the mainframe, he… disabled all the system's defenses? _No, this can't be right…_

The medic checked them over and over, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Optimus," he finally said, satisfied that he isn't mistaken. "Come take a look at this."

Optimus, along with many of the other 'Bots, gathered around Ratchet's computer terminal. He explained his findings to the rest of the team, garnering reactions of shock.

"You aren't thinking Raf worked with the intruder?" Bulk questioned with disbelief.

Before the rest of the team had the opportunity to argue over this, Optimus raised his hand, silencing any further commentary. "I believe it is best to reserve judgement until we have all the facts."

"Optimus, I remember Raf mentioning that he recognized the hacking style first employed. He said it was similar to his own," Ratchet added, scratching his chin.

Bumblebee was deep in thought, he looked over the message that was sent to him earlier. _DF… DF… who do I know that has those initials._

"Daniel Flynn!" Bumblebee buzzed out, causing looks of confusion from his teammates.

"Who is Daniel Flynn?" Ratchet inquired with confusion.

"Dan is Raf's best human friend. Raf once told me he was his mentor and taught him many things about hacking, which would explain why Raf would recognize his style as similar to his own."

Ratchet immediately checked his computer terminal and opened another set of logs. He quickly skimmed through them and found the line he was looking for. "The hacker printed the text, 'DID YOU EVER HEAR THE TRAGEDY OF DARTH PLAGUEIS THE WISE?' on the main terminal screens for a few seconds, after which Raf disabled the mainframe's security."

'Bee snapped his digits, "that is a reference to a human movie and meme that they both are obsessed with. I have overheard them say that exact phrase many times before."

"But if they knew you knew that, why would he use it as a code word to indicate to Raf to drop the security?" Arcee questioned.

"He didn't," Ratchet said, "obviously, he did not anticipate that Raf would block his hack and used the message as a way of telling him to stop."

The room was silent, the bots contemplated their options before Bulkhead asked, "Well what do we do now?"

To say Miko was having a _fun time_ would be the understatement of the millennium.

"Okay guys, remember when I said I was living in 'botswana?'" Miko asked, still looking around as they walked in their mech suits with awe in her new optics.

"Yeah?" Raf replied meekly.

"Well now I'm… I'm in ULTRA-BOTSWANA!"

Daniel groaned, "I'm glad you are having fun." Daniel stopped suddenly and looked up to a sign that was automatically translated for their eyes. It read in English, 'ARCADE' and had two huge, revolving doors underneath. "As a good friend of mine always said, _Allons-y!_ "

They walked through the door, revealing a giant room filled with row upon row of alien arcade machines. Except, there was something different about them. Something that Miko couldn't put her new digit on until they were right on front of one of the machines. They had no controls. Instead, they possessed an cybertronian sized version of what looked like the helmet they all were wearing to control the mech suits they were in.

"These games work very similarly to the suits we are in now," Daniel explained, expecting them to ask. "They literally project the virtual world into your mind, like the matrix!"

"Sweet!" Miko jumped, walking through the rows of machines, trying to find something she would like.

After a few minutes, her optic was caught. The machine was covered in images of explosions and energon. The title was, **TYGER PAX: SPEECHLESS**

"I'd highly suggest you not play that one," Daniel called from the other side of the room, "it's rather graphic and realistic."

 _Right up my alley!_ Miko excitedly thought.

She walked up to the machine and put on its helmet.

But nothing happened.

"Daniel!" Miko whined, "it's not working!"

Dan rolled his mech suit's optics and grabbed an alien coin from seemingly nowhere then inserting it into the machine. "There."

Miko immediately felt reality slipping away, not unlike when she first entered her mech suit. However, instead of being greeted by the HUD, she could only feel the cold embrace of the void. Suddenly, text appeared directly in her line of sight. **This videogame experience is a true story taken directly from the Autobot archives.**

Suddenly, the scene changed. She found herself on Cybertron, and only at this point did Dan's words from earlier make sense in her head. _It's known only as a graveyard now. A graveyard for lost hopes and dreams; the center of a wound the galaxy has yet to heal._

The landscape was completely ruined by artillery fire. The sky was pitch black and the area was primarily lit by the raging fires caused by the war. She figured she was in a major city, as the buildings around looked somewhat like human skyscrapers, only scaled up to Cybertronian size.

"Hey, 'Bee!" A 'bot called from nearby.

Miko turned to where the voice came from, she tried to speak, but found she couldn't. In fact, she couldn't control any part of her body. Instead, a distinctly masculine voice spoke with her mouth, "talk to me, Hydraburner."

"Optimus Prime's orders for us are to infiltrate the Decepticon Army compound nearby and collect intel on Megatron's plan of attack," the red, white and blue mech explained, "if possible, we are also to sabotage their war machine in whatever way we can without being compromised."

"I understand," the masculine voice emanating from Miko's avatar said.

Hydraburner's hand turned into a gun and he nodded. "Let's get going, Megatron isn't going to wait forever to begin his next attack."

Miko found that she could control her avatar once again, _who the hell am I?_ She asked, looking down at her avatar's yellow body.

It clicked in her mind, _I'M BUMBLEBEE?!_ _HE HAD A VOICE?_

She was immediately brought out of her thoughts. "INCOMING ARTILLERY FIRE!" a nearby Autobot yelled.

She narrowed her optics and focused on Hydraburner, who was already a kilometer away. She transformed into what must have been the Cybertronian equivalent of an Urbana 500 to catch up. Her avatar dodged the incoming fire and sped up beside Hydraburner, who was fighting a squad of Vehicons.

"Need a little help here!"

Miko jumped into action. Back in Japan, she was trained in the martial arts of Karate and Judo, allowing her to easily take down her opponents, along with Bumblebee's energon blasters, of course. The vehicons fell to the ground, one by one as she mercilessly offlined them with ease.

"You've got skill, for a scout," Hydraburner chuckled.

Miko's avatar huffed rolled his shoulders. "I suggest we take the alleyways, the main streets past this point will be crawling with 'cons."

"Lead the way, scout."

The game marked her objective on her HUD. As she made her way through the alleyways (followed by Hydraburner), she encountered and slaughtered multiple Vehicons, who were (like the ones earlier) no match for mad skillz.

The duo finally made it to a clearing in the jungle metropolis. She could see hundreds of vehicons guarding a single building, which her HUD marked as her target. She knew that she couldn't take all of those soldiers on at once, even though they were about as effective as stormtroopers. She had to find another way in.

"What. The. Hell." Raf stuttered as he watched Miko play as one of his best friends.

"Ah, yes I was going to tell you about that…" Daniel muttered, "you see, just after Cybertron went dark, Optimus Prime ordered the evacuation of all Autobot forces on the planet. His ship, the _Ark,_ carried his personal, elite squadron known as Team Prime. The story goes that when Megatron learned of Optimus fleeing, he ordered his personal flagship, the _Nemesis,_ to go after them. After the _Ark_ escaped the Cybertron system into deep, unexplored space, they were never heard of again."

Raf raised a brow, "and what does that have to do with anything?"

"Optimus Prime and his team are considered to be legends in modern times. The Decepticon cause is mostly dead, with only a few terrorist cells still operating at most. The majority of the Decepticon veterans from the war renounced their allegiance to Megatron after it was revealed that he was the one who poisoned Cybertron's core with dark energon, resulting in the entire planet becoming uninhabitable," Dan continued, "Miko playing a videogame as Bumblebee is like me playing a videogame in World War I."

"Besides, this game respects history, unlike some. It shows the dirty, horrid side of war…" Daniel commented before trailing off, watching Miko mercilessly slaughter multiple vehicons. "Though it seems Miko _enjoys that side of war_."

Dan and Raf could see she'd already made her way into the compound. She was currently fighting a Decepticon warrior, and winning, with Hydraburner fending off hordes of vehicons from the rear. After they traded a few blows, Miko offlined the 'con and moved on towards the central computer mainframe. In a matter of seconds, she was downloading data. Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

That was until she saw Hydraburner get shot through the spark three times.

"HYDABURNER!" Miko's avatar screamed. She lost control of her avatar as he ran towards his comrade. A dark chuckle that was all too familiar to Miko filled the corridor. She looked up to see a large, silver mech towering over them. "Scrap," her avatar cursed as Megatron grabbed the bug by the throat and rammed him against the wall.

"I am going to ask this once, Autobot scum. Where is the location of the All-Spark!" Megatron interrogated.

"You aren't getting anything out me, buckethead!" 'Bee indignantly spat.

"So be it, Autobot. If you will not speak with me, YOU SHALL NEVER SPEAK AGAIN!" Megatron roared.

What happened next made both boys stomachs churn.

Instructing his vehicons to hold the scout steady, he ripped open the scout's throat. Energon spewed all over the floor, while also exposing a small, black box that was wired directly to the scout's processor. Megatron cruelly grinned as he ripped out the box.

"P-please d-don't" Bee's voice faltered, filling with static. He tried to speak again, but only static came out.

The warlord gave a dark chuckle before ordering his troops to release the scout, knowing he'd be offline within minutes due to energon loss.

"Lord Megatron!" A vehicon said, approaching Megatron, "this position is being overrun, we need to retreat!"

Megatron was deep in thought for a moment before saying, "very well, we will regroup at sector E-512 for stage II of Operation Barbarossion."

The 'cons ran out of the corridor, leaving Bumblebee alone for scrap. Miko's vision faded to black.

 ** _Autobot Scout Bumblebee was later found by Autobot forces and was evacuated to a triage facility where he was stabilized. He eventually recovered from most of his injuries, however, his voice box was severely damaged and had to be replaced with a primitive prosthetic, which could only produce a very narrow set of sounds. He was later transferred to the famed 'Team Prime' and served with distinction under Optimus Prime until the end of the war. He was one of the many who escaped Cybertron on the Ark, and was never seen again. Him, alongside every other Autobot on that ship have been declared Missing in Action by the Autobot Commonwealth._**

Raf almost teared up reading it. Miko took the helmet off her mech suit's helm and yelled, "that was… something."

Daniel raised a brow, "you aren't _totally siked_ by it?"

Miko shot him a glare, "Bumblebee is my friend too, seeing him get hurt like that was not okay."

Daniel raised his hands, "look I told you not to play that game."

Miko rolled her optics.

"Just… stop…" Raf stuttered, on the verge of crying.

"Aw hell, I'm sorry Raf," Daniel sighed, "look, tell you what, how about we return these mech suits, get some alien ice cream and go home, eh?"

Raf stayed silent for a moment before nodding in approval.

Daniel, Raf and Miko stepped through a portal leading to the garage, each holding different flavors of ice cream in their hands. It seemed to make them feel somewhat better, but of course, not entirely. "Well, honestly, other than the _game_ , I think we had quite a lot of fun!"

"Uh, Daniel, what's this?" Raf asked, pointing to a green, blinking light beside his computer terminal.

Puzzled, Daniel pressed a few buttons on his phone to see what the problem was. Once he realized what was happening, his expression contorted into a massive frown.

"What is it?" Miko asked with concern.

Dan turned to face them, showing them something on his phone, "There happens to be four Autobots on my doorstep."


	4. Polybius

**_Hello Everybody! I am so sorry for not getting this out earlier, school and other fics got in the way. Anyway, a few brief notes before we begin. One, my writing style has changed slightly from since I stopped writing this chapter half-way through a few months ago. Most notably, fixing grammar errors and such, but also I now prefer to combine different pieces of dialog together into one paragraph, as well as adding more detail as well. You'll see the difference. Anyway, Thanks for sticking around and let's jump into Chapter 4!_**

 ** _WARNING: My most recent work, "To Build a Rocket," is this fic's sequel and contains MAJOR spoilers for the end. DO NOT READ unless you are willing to make that sacrifice._**

 **-MT**

 **Chapter 4 – Polybius**

The trio silently stood in Dan's garage, unable to form any words for what seemed to be an eternity. Raf perceived the room to have a more ominous feel. Finally, Miko broke the silence, "do you think they discovered what we were doing?"

"No," Daniel exhaled, sitting at one of his workbenches, pulling a pistol-looking device out of a drawer underneath. "But, they probably suspect me as the one who copied all their data."

"I thought you did-" Miko started before getting cut off.

"Of course, I did," Daniel huffed while rolling his eyes. He rolled the chair over a to another workspace with a computer terminal and opened the files he stole. "These files have given me valuable insight into one of this universe's greatest mysteries… and one of its deadliest secrets."

 _I only needed the details though,_ Daniel thought, _for clarification._

"What do you mean?" Miko questioned.

Daniel rolled his chair back to where he was previously and grabbed what looked like a soldering iron. He opened his mouth to answer, but Raf, remembering from what he saw at the arcade answered, "Team Prime's status is a big mystery to the galaxy. Why do you think that they made a whole video game solely about Bumblebee's story?"

"Pretty much," Daniel smiled, clearly impressed with Raf's ability to retain the details. "Though, that's only half the story."

Miko raised her eyebrows in anticipation, but, was disappointed when Daniel said he'd tell them later. Raf's expression suddenly changed to one of fear, "Dan, what exactly are we going to do about the 'bots outside?"

Ignoring him, Dan finished work on his new pistol with a smile. Quickly reassembling it, he grabbed a soda can from a recycling bin and placed it on the ground. "Move back," he ordered.

The children did as they were told and moved behind Dan. The scientist took aim and squeezed the trigger. Bright violet plasma erupted from the pistol's barrel, tearing through the can and leaving a mark on the garage floor. "Brilliant," Daniel hummed, "this new prototype should, in theory, be able to penetrate cybertronian armor with ease."

"You aren't planning to-"

"Of course not," Daniel scoffed, "however, with Decepticons running amok on Earth, it's a great excuse to update my arsenal."

Raf slowly nodded. Daniel put the weapon in his inside "pocket" and sat down on a workbench nearby next to Miko.

"To answer your question, Raf, I am not sure what exactly I am going to do…" Daniel sighed, "the garage and the bunker underneath is completely shielded from sensors. The second we step out, however, the Autobots will know we're here. Before we do that, we need to figure out what went wrong that tipped them off to me."

Daniel was deep in thought, replaying everything that had transpired over the past few hours. _Where is the fault? Where did I go wrong?_

After a few seconds, the answer popped in his head, _of course it wasn't just my fault._

"Raf," Daniel asked, swiveling around in his chair, "did you clear the logs?"

"The wha…" Raf trailed off, "FRAG!"

"Shh! They may not be able to detect us with their sensors but they sure as hell can with their audial."

"Sorry," Raf whispered, "but I forgot to clear the logs on my end."

Daniel took a deep breath, thinking about an ingenious deception (or as Daniel preferred, 'truth enhancement') to keep the Autobot's off their trail.

"Raf, Miko, are you willing to lie to the Autobots?" Daniel asked.

"Dan I'm not so sure about that…" Raf stuttered with fear.

Daniel sighed, "I am willing to take the fall if you choose not to; I do not want you to feel like you're being forced. But, the path I propose has much littler risk than-"

"Seriously, you couldn't predict the risk of going in the Autobot base to raid the mainframe-" Miko interjected before getting cut off by Dan.

"Boredom overrides my logic," Daniel stated flatly, "in retrospect I would have done things much differently."

Miko rolled her eyes and Raf looked down at the ground in despair. "What will happen if we choose to tell the truth?"

Dan gulped, "I don't know…"

"What do you predict?" Raf snapped while looking at the other teen pointedly.

"There are many possibilities, many of which I would consider negative to catastrophic."

"Oh, come on," Miko almost shouted, "Optimus is one of the most forgiving mechs ever!"

Dan looked at her. It was at this moment she saw that his eyes smoldered with deep pain, unlike any she had ever seen before in anyone else. He got up from his chair and took a step toward her. He forced his expression to change from frustration to one of ambivalence… though Miko could see through the façade. "Tell me," he said calmly, "do you remember those inverted egg-shaped creatures from Aquatron?"

"Yeah?" Miko said, not knowing where this conversation was heading.

"Those are called quintessons and for your information and they used to have a galaxy-spanning empire at one point," Daniel seethed taking another few steps towards her, "they conquered Cybertron, enslaved its population and killed them for sport."

As he got closer, Miko saw his façade of calm melt away like ice cream on a hot summer day… on the surface of the sun. "Do you ever wonder where the Autobots got their insignia from? Hm? Did you ever ask them? Of course, you didn't, you _dunce_ …"

"STOP IT!" Raf yelled.

Daniel held his tongue, his eyes darted towards Raf's form, who was on the verge of crying.

"Aw pit," Daniel sighed with his anger slipping away, "I'm sorry for saying those things, it's just that… never mind."

The scientist took a seat and rubbed his forehead. He looked at the younger tween, who was still wiping tears off his face. Raf took a deep breath, "I've made my decision. We are going to tell them everything."

"Is that final?"

"Yes," Raf croaked, looking away from his friend, but, at this point he wasn't if he was still friends with him or not.

 _Welp, I guess someone hasn't lived until they fight in a pointless, millennia-long conflict._

Daniel rose to his full height and put on a put on a rueful smile. "Well then, let's not keep the Autobots waiting."

They walked through the door out of the garage, which led into the home's Raf's phone immediately rang, causing him to jump a little in fear; he pulled it out of his pocket: it was Bumblebee.

"I'd answer it if I were you," Daniel advised.

Raf felt a lump forming in his throat as he answered and put the call on speaker.

"Raf, are you there? Are you safe?" 'Bee buzzed worriedly.

"I'm fine 'Bee, what's wrong?" Raf asked with nervousness leaking into his speech.

Suddenly, 'Bee's buzzing got much lower, "is Daniel with you?"

Raf's breath hitched for a moment as he looked up to Daniel, who nodded at him. "Yeah?"

"I need you and Daniel to come with me back to base with us," 'Bee buzzed with a somewhat threatening pattern, causing Raf to almost die of fright.

Daniel gestured for him to hang up, which he did. Raf looked like he was almost going to cry, "I… I'm so screwed! One of my best friends…"

"You need to stay calm," Daniel ordered calmly, "don't worry Raf, I've been in much worse positions than this."

"Really?" Raf asked with disbelief, wiping away a tear in his eye.

Daniel knelt down to his height and chuckled, "oh yeah, this is nothing really. I'll tell you about it later… I highly doubt the Autobots will punish you, not with me to lynch."

"They wouldn't do that!" Raf protested with a frown.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Daniel warned with a dark look creeping onto his face, "did anyone ever tell you about what the Wreakers Corps did?"

Miko eyes widened and was about to open her mouth before Daniel swung open the door. The sun hadn't quite set yet, though the sky was getting a bit orange. He could see two Autobots, including a conspicuous blue and red semi-truck parked on his side of the road, with another two parked directly across. He adjusted his collar and turned back towards the children. "Well what are you waiting for? A hug?"

The children snapped out of their thoughts and made their way outside.

"Miko!" Bulkhead shouted from across the street.

"Bulkhead!" Miko replied, running across the street without even looking.

Raf walked up the to the yellow and black Urbana 500 with Daniel following behind. Just after Raf got in however, the doors shut and locked. "He's riding with Prime," Bee buzzed darkly.

 _How rude!_ Daniel mentally protested. As 'Bee sped off, he looked towards the big rig, who Daniel knew was staring at him. _Let's get this over with_ , Daniel thought as he meandered over to the truck. Just as he was about to open the Autobot Commander's door, an incessant beeping sound rang from his pocket.

 _Who could this POSSIBLY BE?_ Daniel mentally seethed, _if it isn't important I swear to God…_

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID.

 ** _PRESIDENT ELITA-ONE._**

Daniel's mood immediately shifted. Elita-One was the president of the Autobot Commonwealth. She entered negotiations for peace with the leader of a major remnant of the Decepticon Imperium (now refered to as the Union of Free Cybertronian Systems (UFCS)), Thundercracker and ushered in a new age of peace in the galaxy along with the quintessons, eventually creating the ISU today.

Careful not to use her name (considering her sparkmate was right next to him,) he said, "Hello Madam President, I must say your call is unexpected."

 ** _"We need your help, New Iacon has been attacked,"_** Elita gravely reported, **_"Teletraan III has been brought offline by a virus and no one here has a clue how it happened."_**

Daniel didn't even need to question any further. The Teletraan system was the heart of New Iacon, which was located on Scarth IV: the capital of the Autobot Commonwealth. It was one of the most advanced computer systems in this universe, and if **it** could be taken down with a simple computer virus, everyone could be in big trouble.

"I'll be there shortly, Flynn out."

Daniel hanged up and turned to the prime, who was probably wondering what that was about. "Sorry Optimus, we'll have to do this another time. Duty calls."

Before the Autobots could stop him, Daniel grabbed his portal gun from his coat pocket and fired it at the ground underneath him. He fell though and hit the ground hard on the other end, leaving him dazed for a few seconds. He looked up, got to his feet and pressed the button on his gun that closed the portal behind him. He was in what looked like a dimly lit underground parking lot at first glance, but, was in fact his 'underground lair.' Directly adjacent to him was a 2017 jet black Ford Mustang Shelby GT350. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed a button, unlocking the 'car.'

After he had fastened his seatbelt and pressed the ignition button. The vehicle roared to life with all its internal electronics lighting up. After feeling slightly dizzy, Dan smiled and drove the car forwards, up a concrete ramp and towards the 'exit.' Well, not exactly an exit, because simply wasn't a direct exit out of the place (not including the emergency exit). Instead, Dan drove up to an array of massive, circular disks. A spacebridge.

He pulled out his phone once again and accessed the spacebridge controls. He inputted the coordinates for New Iacon and watched as the energon based, 'Bot sized spacetime vortex opened in front of him.

Once on the other side of the portal, Daniel took a second to appreciate the landscape. The planet was Cyberformed long ago by an unknown process (to contemporary Cybertronians,) and was extremely similar to their old home. It was previously colonized by the Cybertronian Empire Autobot City dominated the sky with its silver megascrapers reaching high up into the atmosphere. However, in Dan's opinion, the sky was the most breath-taking feature, being a rich turquoise color unique to Scarth IV and being lit by two binary stars. Just ahead of Dan was the New Iacon Hall of Records, where Teletraan III was installed a hundred years ago.

Daniel thought about the transformation process, which triggered something deep within the 'car.' It transformed into its true form, a jet-black military grade mech suit that stood over 6 meters (20 ft) tall. Its design was angular, much like the alt mode Daniel had programmed into its T-Cog. Using the mech suit, Daniel walked up the stairs to the main entrance where Elita-One was speaking with a quintesson. Her armor glistened in the bright sunlight like a Christmas ornament. She had her servos clasped behind her back as she listened to what the quintesson had to say. However, after a second she noted Daniel and smiled, "Ah Daniel, thank you for coming on such short notice."

"I am happy to help," Daniel replied in cybertronian with slight fatigue in his voice. "However, I have urgent matters to attend to at home as soon as possible, so I won't be staying for dinner".

The quintesson seemed clueless about what was going on, "um, ma'am, who exactly is this?"

"Daniel Flynn, of the planet Earth," Daniel said nonchalantly.

"Oh yes, _the human_ " the quintesson remembered, "I am not sure how much your assistance will be useful. My engineers-"

"Have made no progress," Elita interrupted, fury lacing her voice, "they remain utterly clueless about what has marred Teletraan and New Iacon's continues to be operated manually! The militia has taken over everything that should be automated, and they are tiring."

The quintesson snorted, but didn't retort and floated away, mumbling a few obscenities.

 _Pompous prick_ , Elita thought, turning back towards the human. She then gestured for him follow, which he unsurprisingly obeyed. They walked through the illustrious atrium and past the reception desk. "Elevators are offline, we've been taking the service tunnels," Elita informed Daniel.

"As to be expected," Daniel droned.

Elita nodded and started to climb down a ladder to Teletraan's computer core, "do you have an idea of what could have caused this?"

Dan followed and started to climb down the same ladder, the shaft's lighting was pitch black, forcing both Elita and Dan to use night vision. "I am familiar with Teletraan's security systems, there are very few strains of malware that could leave a dent, let alone take down the entire system."

"So, to answer your question," Daniel continued in a darker tone, "you really don't want to know."

Elita just nodded and continued climbing downward. After a minute, they had almost reached the bottom when they saw a dim light followed by muffled, irritated speech. As they got closer, Dan could pick out one 'British' voice in particular that was familiar.

"I am quite puzzled by these diagnostics Inquirata," the voice spoke in Quintesson, "are you certain that the security systems were not disabled manually by a negligent individual or an intruder?"

Elita and Dan entered the main computer core. Wires were strewn all over the floor, mechs and quintessons were scrambling around with datapads in their servos, trying to figure out what the pit was going on. In the center of chaos was a red and blue mech, who, seemed to keep this whole situation from melting down.

"Doctor!" Daniel greeted in Cybertronian with a smile, remembering his days at the Quintessa Institute of Research or QIR for shot.

The blue and red mech looked up. "Ah Daniel, it's been awhile".

Daniel walked over towards him and looked at his datapad. "Indeed, that class you taught on cybertronian bioengineering has been immensely helpful," Daniel stated.

"You were always the top student…" Perceptor muttered before turning towards a computer terminal. "it's a shame you dropped out."

"I read ahead in the textbook and found everything in that Cybertronian Biotech textbook to be incredibly obvious and pedantic," Daniel explained. He then glanced at a nearby terminal, "you designed the Teletraan architecture, I read up on it when I first took your class… I can't see anyway a virus could infiltrate its systems."

Of course, Daniel did know a _few_ ways one could bypass its security, but he decided it would be too complicated to explain in a brief period of time. Behind them, Elita-One watched with interest. She had always been intrigued by this _human_ 's abilities. She had to wonder if he was some kind of cosmic Mary Sue, though, at this point, she wouldn't be surprised if this universe _was_ fanfiction.

Perceptor opened one of the terminals, "we have been able to bring some of Teletraan's subsystems partially online." The mech pointed to something on the screen, "the malicious program seems to have left a message for us."

He opened a file, which caused the screen to blacken for a microsecond before displaying one word in big, blocky blue text: **Polybius**.

Daniel's faceplate darkened as he recognized that word, "well. That explains things."

"What is it?" Perceptor asked with confusion, "I have never heard of anything called Polybius."

Daniel clasped his servos behind his back and vented deeply. "The Polybius supervirus, as it has been called… is the most sophisticated computer malware ever developed. It was developed by Rick C-137 as a super-cyberweapon for use against his universe's Galactic Federation. Since then he has sold copies to the highest bidder."

"Decepticon loyalists," Elita spat, stepping beside the two mechs, "they've been at this for vorns now."

The Decepticon loyalists or radicals, as they were sometimes called, were Decepticons loyal to Megatron and Megatron alone. They had no intentions on peace with the Autobots, only that they should be conquered and annihilated. Most abandoned the idea of Megatron as the amazing leader he portrayed himself as after it was revealed that he was the one who poisoned Cybertron's core with dark energon in an effort to control the planet itself.

"My knowledge of this virus's destructive potential is limited, but what I do know…" Daniel started, before one of Autobot President's aides interrupted. "Ma'am, Prime Minister Thundercracker is outside. He wishes to discuss recent developments with you."

"Very well, I'll meet him there," Elita-One responded flatly. Only the very best trained optics could see the smoldering anger brewing behind her faceplate. Controlling her emotions was something she learned from her long departed sparkmate. She made her way out of the Teletraan III complex, leaving Daniel alone with the rest of the technicians.

The atmosphere at Autobot Outpost Omega-One was, to put it lightly, tense. Bumblebee drove into the main silo with Raf, escorted by both Bulkhead (who carried Miko) and Arcee, followed by Optimus a few seconds later. Ratchet watched them as they entered, paying close attention to 'Bee and Raf. The boy got out of Bumblebee, his face displayed a mix of horror, regret and pure rage. _How could he abandon me?!_ Raf thought angrily, _he was supposed to be my friend… why? Why would he do this?_

Optimus transformed ahead of Raf, his back facing the young boy. Miko got out of Bulkhead and stood beside her younger friend. As she looked up to Optimus, she for the first time felt uncomfortable by the Autobot's presence, almost as if they'd stabbed her in the back. Raf noticed something in the corner of his eye, it was Agent Fowler looking down at them judgmentally from a platform overhead

After a few agonizing seconds, Optimus turned to face the children. He slowly walked forward towards them, each step creating a miniature earthquake getting progressively more intense as he got closer. His massive frame's shadow left the two humans in darkness as they looked up to his judging blue optics. He knelt down and came face to face with the humans, "Miko, Raphael," the Autobot Commander almost growled, "did you or did you not conspire with this 'Daniel Flynn' to steal Autobot records."

Raf hesitated and his voice waiver, "I did Optimus."

Those words pierced the Autobots' sparks like a giant spear. Optimus' faceplate hardened and stood back up. "For the record," Raf quivered, "Miko had nothing to do with this, she merely followed me back to Dan's place…"

Miko couldn't take it anymore. She could not stand idly by while Raf took all the blame. "Look, Daniel isn't a bad guy, he took us out for space ice cream!"

"Space ice cream?" Arcee questioned with a glare.

"I forgot what it was exactly called, but it was on this planet called Aquatron. It was so cool, we got to go in these suits that made us as big as you guys!" She smiled, but before she could go on, Ratchet interrupted, "Aquatron?! That's Quintesson territory, you can't go there! They'd…"

"They were very nice to us!" Miko retorted, leaving the Autobots in abject shock. "Y-Yeah," Raf stuttered, "on my first trip to Quintessa, a quintesson history professor told me about their history, about the occupation-" If the Autobots physically could look more shocked, they probably would have been.

"Y-you went to Quintessa Prime?" Ratchet gasped in horror. The rest of the Autobots retained their shocked expressions, even Optimus' optics widened. "What is Daniel's intent?" Optimus questioned with a hard-facial expression.

Raf looked at him with a confused expression, "I really don't know for sure, but he doesn't seem to want to hurt anyone if he doesn't have to".

Optimus stood up to his full height, satisfied with the answers Raf had provided. He looked to Ratchet for a moment, almost having a wordless conversation before addressing Raf once again. "Raphael, until we can ascertain what precisely your friend-"

Without warning, a warm and somewhat playful voice chuckled throughout the silo. "Rafael, I never thought you would talk behind my back".

The Autobots turned in shock towards where the sound came from. On the upper catwalk overlooking the silo was Daniel, who was wearing his signature white labcoat. They all drew their blasters and pointed at Dan. "You…" Fowler trailed off, finally putting Dan's face to his name. Putting his portal gun back into one of his coat's inner pockets, Daniel eyed him suspiciously, "do I know you?" Fowler shook his head, "no I just…"

Dan smirked, "yes, yes, I know the Government has kept an eye on me. Quite elementary to detect their wiretaps". Fowler gritted his teeth, but, didn't say another word. Dan looked up and stared down the barrels of the Autobots' weapons. Rolling his eyes, Dan grumbled, "God damnit, I've traveled half-way across the quadrant only to get blasted. What a great plan?"

"Are you the one who intruded into this base and breached our database?" Optimus questioned, still aiming his guns at Daniel. Smirking, Daniel pursed his lips, "yes Optimus, and before you ask, no, Raf was not aware of my presence until I sent that message".

The room fell silent. The Autobots lowered their weapons ever so slightly, recognizing the lack of apparent danger Daniel presented. The scientist clasped his hands behind his back, waiting for Optimus to ask another question.

"Why?" the prime asked, "explain your actions".

Daniel looked down and the ground and opened his mouth ever so slightly, considering what he would say next. Finally, after a few seconds, Daniel said, "I must admit picking up a war-era Autobot signal across the road from my lab was… troubling to say the least. More troubling was discovering one of my best friends being swept up all of this". "Wait," Arcee questioned, "you said you picked up a 'war-era' Autobot signal".

Daniel scratched his head, "I don't know how to tell you guys this…"

He trailed off, looking at Raf before continuing.

"For most of the galaxy, The Great War has been over for **centuries** ".


End file.
